times per day for vehicle traffic, that makes things more comfortable for people. one of the concerns was about park, we removed a number of parking spaces and that was a concern for parking institutions and neighbors, in all the feedback we've received, there isn't an issue that was brought up and in our intercept survey, people have not found it particularly difficult to park based on those results. public perception of bicycle safety has increased, based on our intercept survey, public perception of the walking space has decreased slightly so we'll be keeping our eye on that and then also driving, perception of driving has had an increase, the perception of safety has increased for driving on jfk as well partly due to the reduced speeds and after the cycle track installation, we found

that 87% of all survey responders feel they understand the configuration, there was some concern because it's a new configuration, we have the bicycle lane and then a buffer space and then parking and then the vehicle travel lane, so it was confusing at first, we found after some time that it's been in the ground, people do understand it and we have a majority of respondents say they like the new configuration, among all groups we looked at, people generally like it, there is a difference in terms of how much and on page 5, there's some more information about that in your report so it's a little more polarizing among some residents, in our feedback, we received through phone calls and e-mails, there are people who are concerned about the park but overall, people find it to be more safe and more pleasant than before and as i mentioned, we will continue to

follow this project and make some additional recommendations, we'd be happy to have any input from any of you in the report and if you want to see something in the final report, you can see me separately or right now and we will be back in the spring. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, marium. [inaudible] is going to present a brief overview for the first time in a long time, without spilling her punch line are largely manageable. >> good morning, commissioners. i'm katie patricione, they did issue budget projections last

week for the next two year fiscal period, 13-14 and 14-15. the mayor's office is currently projecting a 263 million dollar deficit for that two year period and that shortfall results from approximately 344 million dollars in known cost increases which is offset by 81 million dollars in estimated revenue growth over the same period. as always, this gap will have to be closed by the time the mayor submits his report, general funding departments reduced our budget, our general fund support by 3% over the next two fiscal years and they've asked us to make a 1 and a half percent cut in 13-14

and a 1 and a half percent cost in 14-15, the budget reduction targets that we received from the mayor's budget office are 465 thousand dollar reduction next year and a 558 thousand dollar reduction the next year, so in the scope of the budget reduction that they have received over the last three or four years, this is eminently manageable. two years ago, we were asked to make a 20% budget cut, so this is something that feels like we can accomplish hopefully with relatively little pain. we would hope to meet this 3% target as well as any cost increases in our budget through revenue, although as we start

the budget process and move through it, certainly we will have additional clarity on that. in our -- our budget is due to the mayor's office on february 21 and starting in january, we will begin to meet with our staff, with the community, with department stakeholders to have a conversation about our two-year budget and i will be back in front of the commission three separate times with budget presentations with final approval by the commission actually on february 21, the same day that the budget is due to the mayor's office. so, i'm feeling pretty good about this for once. we'll see how the process goes but i will absolutely be back in front of you with updates and certainly to solicit the commission's feedback. >> thank you, katie. >> thanks, katie. >> alright, from budget to a

slightly more joyous part of the report which i promise you is coming to an end, i want to recognize a long-time rec and park employee and retiree, coach robert mcdaniel, robert was selected as a very, very prestigious finalist for the 2012 san francisco 49ers quarter back award which is their most prestigious award that comes out of the 49ers community fund and it's a good time to celebrate robert who first started with the department in 89 and who recently retired in june. and this award goes to individuals who make a difference. coach rob worked at boeddeker

playground which is one of the tougher neighborhoods in the city, he was a positive influence for 21 years, using the sport of track and steel to help teach them sportsmanship and hard work, as a retired city employee, coach rob continues to run his own non-profit track and field. he is currently ranked third in the nation in his age for the 100 meter hurdles, and perhaps his biggest accomplishment was being selected to carry the olympic torch here in san francisco for the 2008 beijing olympic, it's an amazing award and thank you for being such a great teacher and leader and coach to young people in the tenderloin. [applause].

>> thank you very much for this award, my wife and i appreciate it very much. what's really important right now is for us to keep the rec centers open because the rec centers is like a second home for the kids in the community. if they don't have a second home, they'll find a home somewhere else and it won't be rec centers. thank you very much. >> thank you, and congratulations. [applause]. >> and, coach, we agree with that, and i want to conclude the report and the year as we always do with a holiday

edition of this month in parks. (music playing). (video playing).

(music playing). (video playing).

>> happy holidays, happy new year, that concludes the general manager's report. >> thank you very much. >> do we have any public under the general manager's report, not under -- come on up. >> bruce stone, president of the san francisco harbor

association, we were hoping as part of the general manager's report, he might mention that the harbor association had agreed to drop this lawsuit against you and against him and against the [inaudible]. >> i appreciate that. >> if we were able to sit down and talk, if we continue with our lawsuit, the courts will send it to adr anyway so why don't we have a mediation amongst ourselves. >> i can't hear you. >> okay. the harbor association is being to drop its lawsuit against the city and the officials personally if we could have a meeting without reservations, discuss all the points calmly, many of which would help the harbor and help rec and park a lot because the document has massive numbers of drafting

errors, incon sis tense sis, undefined terms, and there are other items that get trickier to look at, but they're important to the harbor holders, probably not to the park and rec department, they call them pebbles in your shoes, and there's some more larger fundamental issues which we think we didn't get adequate due process. we think the best way is to have a calm discussion with phil in his office, go over these items and see if we can't get a happier new year. >> thank you very much. >> just as a reminder, this is only on items that is upeder the general manager's report. we do have general comment right after this. >> good morning, commissioners, my name is [inaudible] hernandez gill, i'm the community organizer with the san francisco bicycle coalition, i would like to thank the commission for their support last year for the jfk

driveway, the city has ambitious goals with the yearly results we're seeing on jfk drive and with other projects, we're confident the goals will be met, although we at the bicycle coalition were very encouraged by the sfmta's preliminary evaluation as you heard, we at the bicycle coalition looks forward to seeing the final report to ensure the roadway is safe. i've heard many great stories of people feeling safer, especially from new riders and family, slower speeds in the sense of safety are very important factors in getting people to walk and bike and we're thrilled to see progress in these areas just a few weeks after the project went up. >> thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to comment on the

general manager's report? >> yes. >> please come forward. >> merry christmas, commissioners, members of the public, interested individuals, listening to the manager's report, i found it hollow, empty and kind of disrespectful due to the fact that it just comes off like a dictatorship, you really have nothing as far as a relationship with the city and county of san francisco's residents, and that is so clear with the way you operate in this city. it's almost exclusively to the detriment of traditional san

franciscans, and clearly it's a sign that our community as a victorian community was much better equipped to preserve itself, its community and its culture and something happened after the victorian community whereby we started to divest interest in our culture in our community and you folks really manifest that by eroding our constitutional rights, violating our city and civic rights at every turn and you've done that in a very efficient and effective manner, master manipulators would be a good name to call you. i've never seen our parks and our city in such a depressing,

dilapidated and disinterested condition as they are right now. you might as well hang a sign saying don't come to san francisco, make a turn elsewhere because they're so pathetic when you see people driving atv's in a park that you're supposed to go to, to get away from traffic and you see the rec and park department driving around in cars and atv's in the very areas that we go to try to get away from that activity. you know that the rec and park system is being run by morons. it's being run by people that have absolutely no respect for the community. thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to make public comment under the general manager's report? okay, seeing none, this item is closed. we are now on item 4 which is general public comment up to 15

minutes. at this time, members of the public may address the commission on ie steps of interest to the public, i need all of you to please sit down. we have cards that we are going to go through first so if you could take a seat. >> thank you very much. >> at this time, members of the public may address the commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission and that do not appear on the agenda with respect to agenda items, your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. i have two cards to start with, richard fong and then paul manning. there were cards on the table. if not,, if you just want to get in line as we have two cards. richard, come on up.

>> good morning, commissioners, commissioner fong speaking again, i had the pleasure of attending the palace of fine art community meeting on the 12th and i thought they were going to do pretty good work, so in retrospect, i look at it and i don't quite agree with the layout, so i don't know what that's going to do, so through the chair, commissioner, allan low, i think you're on the committee as such, i would like to see if i can bring in some recommendations that might enhance the development. we had a list of different people, jan was there, she's the executive director, there was a lot of people there, very high dignitary people, even jim lazarus was there, when i took

a look at what they had planned out, they had architects where the explore tor yum is going to leave, so the planning that would be looked at, they want to open up the middle of that building, it's like a part of a hanger, so they were thinking about opening it up in the middle and making a difference, right away, i wanted to [inaudible] to take a good look at what's being looked at there, there's the building on the outside which went through retrofit during 1993. the building structure, they want to possibly build the palace on the north end of the properties, that's something that might be later on used on the marina greens area, i'm not sure, and they can also look at

that, but the building itself, it has retrofit and as they're tearing at all the pieces, i would have liked to propose that there be external facade which mimics or by the columns, the external of the building where they want to open up that part would be pentagonal and you can build on top of it, an upper altar with that type of architect and you can have a walkway over the top, but the porn part -- important part is sto have the external structures stabilize to the seismic retrofit. if you look at it that way, you retain the elegance of the high [inaudible] and you also keep the work that's already in progress. i'd like to see it more incorporated into it and if they want to do a palace, that's what the marina green is for.

>> thank you. >> paul? >> good morning, my name is paul manning, i'm a vice chairman of the harbor tenant's association and i was also part of the advisory commitment with the early stages of getting the renovation completed or planned and moving forward, i'm happy to see it has come forward in quite a good way, i'm getting close to the point where it's almost done, we're about to declare it complete, however, there are a number of security issues that are not addressed in the internal plan allowing people to basically freely walk about the docks, tripping, getting in with a pocket knife, you can get in within the gates in five minutes, we have an asset that is not accurately protected, we have a building or a facility that's not adequately protected, it has the ability to have anyone walk

in and do personal destruction as well as personal property the depth, there are basically some issues with dredging, they had indication that were going to be a problem that was not addressed and those issues have renovation maybe being declared complete maybe in january that have three feet of water at low tide, that renders them inusable, the city will do a rent increase of 35% and essentially allow that facility to be useless to a majority of boat owners that would pay an excessive amount of rent, it's needed a lot of work, it's been modernized, that's an excessive amount of rent to be paying for something that effectively is unusable, there are a lot of

berths at low tide, that needs to be addressed and taken care of. the second item i'm going to bring is in regards to park and rec taking money and in some respects jumping the gun and not being good about returning money and specifically in moving boats out of berths out of renovation or the gas house cove, there was a decision made that those boats should not be playing the longer berth fee and that money should be returned to the berth holders, park and rec has not acknowledged credit for that or handled it, i sent a letter to you regarding the premature increase of rent for west space and berth holders dated august 1, park and rec is in violation of their own park code 12-20 in

terms of how they applied cpi without meeting the dead -- deadlines by your own code. i think a response needs to be made. would you like the letter? >> yes, i would. >> next. >> next speaker. >> testing, 1, 2, 3, testing, 1, 2, 3, thank you. frank, seiu1021 with members and staff here speaking in an official capacity before the commission, good morning and happy holidays. we rise today to inform the commission of some deep concerns regarding fiscal matters, the lack of fiscal accountability, it's one thing

to raise funds, it's quite another question to be accountable and responsible with those funds, that's the subject we're raising, and we prior to coming here, we filed grievances, we spoke to the department, we met with h.r., we left many messages with mr. ginsburg, the h.r. replied in letters, we received no response to date from mr. ginsburg, we regret that but that's why we're here. when the department doesn't want to work with the union and its members, we know what we have to do. what i would like to submit to the commission, what i would like to submit to the commission are documents and then walk right through them, they're important documents, we think they're self-explanatory, they don't need to be characterized by the union but we think those who are familiar with the labor liabilities,

these are -- we are having grievances that have quite a bit of financial claims against this department and the city, so if we go through the package, the first item is a grievance sent by the union, it is a settlement by the rec and park back in the summer, i believe, this was due to problems to settle an eeoc lawsuit emanating from the rangers trailer of overtime, the document behind that is the overtime report, we ask you to take a close look, especially the labor representatives, we're informing you that our contract provides mandatory, that it must be distributed evenly, equally to all employees

. do representatives have the same limit as evils -- individuals on the public comment? >> that is a warning. >> thank you so much. alright. now, the last document is the employer's response. department response to this information, if you take a look at this, they say that the union mentions the 250 thousand dollar settlement comes out of the same section, that's not correct. we submitted the document so they're mischaracterizing this document and essentially enabling and condoning the misuse of public funds. these funds are being distributed in such a way. the union has not seen any

effort whatsoever, any concern whatsoever on the part of the department's h.r. or the department. we've raised all of these issues to the general manager, nothing going on. we're asking you to exercise your proper fiscal responsibilities and oversight and to look into these matters, we also have targeted employees with excessive discipline who are also more legal liabilities to the department and to the city, we ask you to exercise your proper duties and we respectfully believe that you will be able to do so and we can get back in track. now, if that doesn't happen, -- >> let's take it from there, thank you, your time is up but we will look at them and we'll -- >> [inaudible] focus groups are also available and we hope to resolve it within the department. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> next